11th May 2006

My Birthday Dream Concert: Kultur Shock and Gogol Bordello!!!

There probably isn’t a god, but for the sake of dramatic effect let me say: There is a God. What else could explain Gogol Bordello and Kultur Shock performing together June 9th at the Irving Plaza (buy your tickets today!!!) TWO DAYS BEFORE MY BIRTHDAY?!?!? (Better still, my birthday is on a Sunday — a bad day to lay seed for a hangover &mdash but the concert is on a Friday!!!)

Regular Bruner Blog readers, if there is such a freakish audience segment, may have heard before of Gogol Bordello. Gogol Bordello I know only from a couple of live concerts. (Elizabeth, I’m not dreaming this: you and I saw a poster at one of their concerts that featured an innocent fawn giving cunnilingus to a woodland nymph, right? I’ve never again been able to find that image online, lo though I’ve tried.) Kultur Shock I know only from two CDs. Gogol Bordello, a NYC band, is getting top billing at Irving Plaza, with reference only to “special guests” on Irving Plaza’s site. But, love Gogol Bordello as I do, I’m most interested in seeing Kultur Shock.

Since I first discovered them in the most unlikely medium of NPR’s Fresh Air, I’ve been a raging fan of this insanely great band. Based in Seattle, with two Bosnian members (one Bosnia Serb, one Bosnian Croat), a Bulgarian, a Japanese and two Amerikans, they’re rather hard to categorize. (Here’s their record company’s attempt; here the’s band’s own attempt.) I’d over-simplify by saying, akin to Gogol Bordello (a natural pairing), “Eastern-European-Amerikan punk.” Something like Butthole Surfers meets Boban Markovic

we-came-to-take-your-jobs-away.jpg

Of their three albums, I have two: their earlier “FUCC the I.N.S.” is amazing (”Montenegro” is one of my all-time favorite songs), but their more recent “Kultura-Diktatura” is also good. I have very high hopes for their upcoming 2006 release, “We Came to Take Your Jobs Away,” which has to be one of the best album titles ever.

Anyway, if you’re a friend of mine or you just want to witness a life-altering concert event, show up at Irving Plaza on June 9. It almost makes me happy to be turning 41. There will be pictures (if I can figure out a good way to slam dance with a digital SLR).



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